A/N: Hey all! This little one-shot popped its way into my head and just refused to go away. Since Rumbelle is still life I figured I could share it as well. Hope you enjoy!
Spring had firmly arrived at the Dark Castle. Flowers in the long-forgotten gardens were bright and blooming, while the last vestiges of snow melted from the surrounding mountains. Rumpelstiltskin sat at the lone chair accompanying the long table in his Great Hall. His maid made herself busy with a tea tray piled high with biscuits she obviously meant to tempt him with. The young woman was certainly a bold one and she'd noted with no little disdain his deplorable eating habits. As the beauty handed the Dark One his favorite chipped cup, her eyes alighted on the book lying discarded before the master of the castle.
"What's that you're reading," Belle inquired curiously.
"Just a dusty old volume on the history of magic," the imp answered easily as he mixed a rather large helping of sugar into his tea.
"By Tacitus?" The young beauty exclaimed, excitement plainly visible in her gaze as it returned to the book.
"Yes," he replied in surprise. "You've read it?"
"All four volumes," came the proud response.
Rumpelstiltskin was intrigued by this development. A woman who read? Surely not. The Dark One leaned back in his chair as he examined his odd little maid. She'd plucked the book from its resting place and was eagerly flipping through the yellowed pages.
"A woman who reads and speaks her mind," the imp observed. "Your poor father."
The girl shot him a bemused smirk at that. "I rather think he'd agree with you."
"It's not easy to find suitors for an intelligent and audacious woman."
Belle's brows furrowed as she contemplated his assessment. It had been a statement, one he knew all to well to be true. Something akin to disgust snuck onto her face as she answered the Dark One. "Not that he didn't try his best to find me one."
"Oh? Do tell." Rumpelstiltskin couldn't explain why he was so curious about his maid's past, but her current ire over her father's attempts to find her a gentleman certainly intrigued him to no end.
And unless he was greatly mistaken, the young beauty blushed at his question. An odd warmth the Dark One filled his chest.
His maid propped herself up on the table a short way down from him as she thought about her response.
"My mother and father always agreed that I would be able to marry for love. We're a small duchy, so propriety allowed me longer to find a suitor before I was deemed a helpless old spinster." A simpering grin tugged at her lips as she spoke of propriety and the trappings of nobility. "However, agreeing to let me marry for love didn't mean my father couldn't introduce me to every young man in the realm. My mother tempered him as best she could, but, in his own way, he wanted me to find happiness."
"So you're saying you've been courted a few times then my lady?" He sneered the words to cover the emptiness he felt when she mentioned marrying for love. Rumpelstiltskin had a hard time forgetting the dashing young brute who'd claimed to be her betrothed.
The beauty met his harsh sneer with a withering smile and a roll of her eyes, undaunted in the face of his snark. "You could say that. I do seem to remember my father almost having a heart attack after introducing me to Prince James."
"George's son?"
"The very same." A glint of mischief entered her eyes as she spun another tale. "My father introduced us, almost certainly hoping that we'd warm to one another. I don't think he intended on me giving the prince an hour long lecture on the specifics of his kingdoms military history. James couldn't wait to escape me."
A chuckle escaped the imp before he could stop it. "James isn't well known for his clever mind. Though as I hear it he was clever enough to defeat a dragon hindering Midas's kingdom."
"I feel sorry for the dragon. He probably bored it to death with his talk of ceremonies and the latest gossip of the realm."
"Your poor father indeed," Rumpelstiltskin lamented, reinforcing his previous assessment.
"So you disagree with a woman applying and speaking her mind?" Belle challenged fixing him with a steely glare.
The imp held up his hands in a placating gesture as he stood and sauntered in front of his perplexing maid. "Of course not. I find that women generally have just as much of not more steel than men. And they are far less hung up on swinging their armies about in glorious shows of strength." A flourish of his hands and an impish giggle demonstrated just how little Rumpelstiltskin valued such shows.
"I've met many a woman who could run circles around the men in court. And a few who could have convinced said men that they were running in squares. A sharp mind is nothing to be waisted, regardless of what a person is born."
His words were met by Belle with an approving nod. For some reason, that pleased him to no end. And yet, why did he find it necessary to prove to this woman that he valued her sharp mind and outstanding wit.
"Well who'd have thought I'd find a sensible man after all?" The beauty quipped.
"Sensible, perhaps," Rumpelstiltskin consented. "Man, definitely not." He allowed a modicum of darkness to enter his voice at that proclamation. And noted with a tinge of happiness that his little maid shuddered. Good, she should be afraid of me, the imp thought to himself.
But to his surprise the brash young woman wasn't quite finished with their conversation. "Well man or monster, it's nice to be appreciated for something I actually value." All the Dark One could do was provide her with a weak nod.
"Who knows what's next, women running war rooms," Belle proclaimed with a laugh.
"Heavens forbid it! Or perhaps women slaying dragons?" Rumpelstiltskin replied.
"The world as we know it may fall apart at such foolish notions."
As the two companions of the Dark Castle basked in the laughter of one another they found themselves moving unconsciously towards each other. Rumpelstiltskin noticed that he was far too close to his maid, yet he could no more pull himself away from her than he could command the sun or stars.
The Beast was drawn to this rare spot of pure beauty in the world. Entranced by her. She was everything he wasn't. Kind, beautiful, full of good purpose and light. Next to her he felt as if there might be something within him that remained good. Something that he'd thought had died when he lost his son. In her short time as his maid, Belle had worked a change in the heart of the Dark One. She made him want to be better than what he was.
They were mere inches apart now. Belle sitting on the table in the Great Hall and him leaning in towards her. The sun shone through his now open windows bouncing softly around her and encasing the two of them in the warm glow of afternoon light.
It was as the imp reached up to move an errant curl from her face that reality came crashing back to him. Seeing his blemished and crooked claws so close to her soft splendid skin, was enough to set him right. He was beast and she was far too beautiful for him. A creature as lovely as Belle had no business being touched by a lonely old monster like himself.
He would never be good enough for her.
The talks of sharp minds and suitors had blinded him into believing perhaps there was more to life than the roles one was ascribed to. But no, his lot in life was to be hated and despised by all. Especially those he allowed to get too close.
Coming back on balance Rumpelstiltskin shifted his weight up his heels and took a few steps back from Belle. The imp imagined that he saw disappointment flashed across her face briefly as he did so.
"At least your safe from unwanted suitors here dearie," Rumpelstiltskin consented as he turned to leave.
"I can't imagine that I'll find myself mourning the loss," his daring maid called as he strode from the room.
Despite himself Rumpelstiltskin found a true smile tug at his mouth at her proclamation. Her poor father indeed.
A/N:Thanks for reading! Feel free to drop a review and let me know what you think! Also, I'll add the whole "I don't own Once" bit here. I just enjoy playing with these lovely characters. See you guys in the next story!